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Listen in as Dan Catchpole and Jason Fordney discuss highlights from the energy industry on the northwest and west coast. This episode was recorded on March 25.
NewsData's "People in Power" is an exciting new biweekly podcast that explores issues in the energy industry, featuring expert guests from a wide range of backgrounds. Hosted by veteran energy journalists Jason Fordney and Abigail Sawyer of California Energy Markets and including appearances by writers from sister publication Clearing Up, People in Power will explore trends such as development of a Western wholesale electricity trading market, the transition to a more electrified world of new infrastructure and transportation, renewables integration and reliability, wildfire response and mitigation, and many other topics. "People in Power" draws from an unprecedented pool of expertise and insight in a way never seen before! It's available on all major podcast platforms as well as at www.newsdata.com.
Intro:
Welcome to NewsData's Energy West, a podcast about the energy
industry today and where it's going tomorrow.
Dan Catchpole:
Welcome listeners to the NewsData's Energy West Podcast.
I'm Dan Catchpole, reporter with NewsData's Clearing Up.
Alongside me is my co-host, California Energy Markets editor
Jason Fordney.
Jason, how are you doing today?
Jason Fordney:
It's going great, Dan. It's a beautiful day in northern
California.
I'm eating a wonderful pasta salad right now, so I really can't
complain.
Dan Catchpole:
That sounds like a lovely, lovely way to spend your afternoon.
I do appreciate pasta salad.
Don't eat it very often.
Jason Fordney:
But this is from the Harmony Ridge Market here in beautiful
Nevada City.
Dan Catchpole:
There you go. Listeners, if you're in Nevada City and you've got
a hankering for pasta salad, you know where to go.
Jason Fordney:
I can recommend lots of places.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah, I imagine. Is it a good food scene down there?
Jason Fordney:
It is. It's pretty good.
You know, a lot of organic, like my favorite place, Cosmic
Roots, which I'll probably go up there for a samosa in a few
minutes and yeah, it's pretty decent.
I'm having trouble finding a really good Asian restaurant, but
the search goes on.
Dan Catchpole:
Well, we have plenty up here if you're ever looking to relocate.
Jason Fordney:
You never know.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah. All right.
Well, let's see. You've got the the top story for us this week,
so why don't you get us started?
Jason Fordney:
Yes. Right out of the California Independent System Operator,
which has begun the weighty task of compiling input
from 11 weeks of stakeholder groups as it works towards its
initial straw proposal for the extended day ahead energy
market. This is a pretty major initiative that CAISO had
embarked on quite some time ago
and recently relaunched.
It's wrapping up the working group stage of what is called EDAM.
The straw proposal is due to be released in late April for this
day ahead market, which will be extended across the footprint
of the western energy imbalance market.
CAISO President and CEO Elliot Mainzer said, "It's going to be
an intense few weeks here, pulling together all your input.
But we're really excited to put out, I think, a very solid
market design.
The working groups include representatives from multiple
sectors, including regulators, independent power producers and
environmental groups.
The result will be a very substantive and actionable design for
EDAM," Mainzer said, adding "That we're not talking about
pilots; we're talking about the real thing." So Mainzer says he
wants to harness the collective wisdom of the West in
designing the EDAM proposals.
So you can read more about that in this week's California Energy
Markets.
Also on the market side, the Western market's exploratory group
on March 23rd hired a new consultant, Kirkland Washington
based Utilicast.
This is to oversee strategic planning for the group's evaluation
of regional market structures and their potential to improve
affordability, reliability and decarbonization efforts across
the West.
You Utilicast will create a roadmap for the group on expanding
market solutions in the Western US.
WMEG is considering a stage approach to new market services that
includes day ahead energy sales, transmission system expansion,
power supply and grid solutions and existing and emerging public
policies, according to a news release.
WMEG also hopes to Utilicast will help it identify market
solutions to help achieve cost effective carbon reduction goals
that support reliability.
The group anticipates a roadmap will be completed by the end of
summer.
That's reporting from Abigail Sawyer.
Also from Linda Dailey Paulson and her ongoing drought coverage,
proposed federal legislation would allow Indian tribes to lease
water to outside entities, which one of its sponsors says would
help drought conditions in Arizona.
U.S. Senate Committee on March 23rd heard testimony on the bill
which would enable the Colorado River Indian tribes to assist the
state of Arizona with its water needs.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony from
Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores in
support of the bill, which is called the Colorado River Indian
Tribes Water Resiliency Act of
2021. Introduced in December by Senators Mark Kelly and
co-sponsored by Senator
Kirsten Sinema.
The tribes have first priority water rights for about 719,000
acre feet of water per year for land in both Arizona and
California. The legislation would enable the tribes to provide
drought relief to neighbors in Arizona while protecting natural
areas along the Colorado River.
And finally, another story from Abigail Sawyer in Arizona.
Arizona's Salt River projects that it plans to eventually serve
Facebook's 960,000 square foot data center, currently under
construction in Mesa, with a new 230 kilovolt transmission line
and substation Salt River
project, which is governed by an independent board of directors
on March 22nd and 23rd, held virtual public meetings on its
proposed project Huckleberry.
This is a half mile dual circuit line that would be constructed
from the 230 KV Southeast Power Link Line, which is a seven mile
transmission project to the proposed prickly pear substation
that would be located at the data center
site. The first phase of the $800 million Mesa data center,
which is Facebook's first in Arizona, is scheduled to begin
operation in December.
SRP will begin service to the data center via its existing 69
kilovolt transmission network with prickly pears
69 KV switchyard in place.
So that's what we have this week from California Energy Markets.
What's going on up north there, Dan?
Dan Catchpole:
Thanks, Jason. In Oregon, a coalition of 12 business groups is
asking the State Court of Appeals to review the
Clean Protection Program, which was adopted in December by the
Oregon Department of Environmental Qualities.
The business groups say that the program which cracks down on
uses of natural
gas, gasoline, diesel and other liquids and gas fuels in the
effort, in an effort to cut greenhouse gas
emissions, they say that it's going to basically make the things
too expensive.
It's going to have such a detrimental effect to businesses and
consumers that it's going to seriously harm the economy
in Oregon and to the point that it's going to be prohibitively
expensive and are asking the state to review this and to weigh
the the public interest.
Their petition doesn't actually lay out a legal argument, but it
does clarify and puts a fine
point on their their concerns about what the Clean Protection
Program would do to the economy.
The program is one of the major initiatives of Oregon in recent
years to move towards
a carbon emission free economy, as many states are adopting
similar
policies. Oregon is out in the lead in terms of one of the
leaders, at least in the West, in terms of moving away from
fossil fuels.
And let's see, scientists from the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory have released thousands and thousands of data points
from a 2013 study that they're hoping can be used to better
understand the
effectiveness of and survivability of various fish measures on
the Columbia
River, helping to improve survivability, especially around
juvenile Chinook salmon,
who, as we all know, are struggling.
That's the story from Casey Mahaffey.
US District Court last week approved a $6.75 million settlement
in a class action
lawsuit that came from Portland General Electric's energy
trading losses during a 2020
heat wave that totaled $127 million.
The heat wave caused wholesale markets in the West to spike and
Portland General got
stuck out to dry.
Jason Fordney:
I remember this, yeah.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah.They had a good plan until they didn't.
The Western Power Pool is going to be getting a new CEO.
Sarah Edmonds, who currently oversees transmission and
reliability at Portland General Electric, was hired and has
announced that she will be succeeding, Frank Afranji, who's
retiring as president and CEO.
Well, that's all we've got from the Northwest.
As always, thanks for joining us.
And I'm sure next week will be a little newsy-ier.
It's weird. You just have some slow weeks, right?
I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.
It should be...
Jason Fordney:
It does happen.
We had some interesting news from FERC, Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, which reverted their two controversial
natural gas policy statements after pressure from industry and
charges that it was creating confusion among
developers. So interesting reversal there from FERC on that
issue.
But for becoming more of a climate change aware agency, as far
as I can see.
But pretty, pretty big out of D.C.
there.
Dan Catchpole:
You know, there is an interesting — I'm just going to throw this
out there and then let listeners get back to whatever
they they're doing — there's an interesting panel at our recent
conference
that NewsData put on the Western Electric System Transformation
connecting the West Virtual Conference February 24th and 25th.
Put it on your calendars for next year.
Where one of the panels on there, they were talking about the
need for greater transmission planning,
etc., and particularly in the context of FERC and one of the
commentators
actually you can correct me on his name.
CPUC Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen was noting how one of the
things
that prompted more coordination in the West is you've got this
kind of convergence of state
climate change policies.
And there's a lot of agreement across the industry that there's
not enough coordination, that more coordination is
needed. The path forward to more coordination is not always that
clear.
I thought it was an interesting point, that one place that we've
seen convergence though is just climate is forcing a lot
of these issues.
And whether it's, what you're just talking about with FERC, the
natural gas reversals
focus on transmission.
It just the realities of the world have a way of clearing up all
of the challenges of coordination
sometimes.
Jason Fordney:
Yeah, and that was definitely a recurring theme at the conference
was West regional
coordination.
But your story this week had a little bit of a different angle on
it.
But yeah, some good comments there.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah. And for folks who missed that conference, and it's an
annual one, always a great one.
Newsdata is having another one coming up, April 26, a regional
conversation on small modular nuclear
reactors. That's Tuesday, April 26, noon to 1:30 p.m.
Pacific. And you can go to NewsData's website, NewsData.com to
find out more about that.
And please join us for a regional conversation about small
modular nuclear reactors.
Jason Fordney:
I'm looking forward to that.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah, the future is nuclear, more or less to some degree, whether
or not we like
it. Well, with that, I'll let everyone get back to their day.
Thank you for joining us, listeners.
And Jason, take care.
We'll catch up with you down the road.
Jason Fordney:
Sounds good.
Talk to you next week.
Dan Catchpole:
All right. Take care.
Have a great go get that mimosa.
Jason Fordney:
It was a samosa.
Dan Catchpole:
Not a mimosa.
Samosa right? Yeah.
Go get both. There you go.
Jason Fordney:
All right. Simosas and mimosas.
Dan Catchpole:
Why isn't that a thing?
Why is nobody. Yeah, that should be a thing.
Jason Fordney:
All right. It is now.
You heard it here first.
Intro:
You've been listening to NewsData's Energy West, a podcast about
the energy industry today and where it's going
tomorrow.